Whatever else we believe in, most of us believe in the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When Karen Armstrong won the TED Prize, she wished for the Charter for Compassion, a document that affirms this core belief. The Charter will prove that most people around the world — no matter our religion — share this ideal.

To help start the project, we’ve created a beautiful short video about the Charter. Listen for powerful stories of one-on-one compassion, and reaffirm your own belief in the power of voices united to share the Golden Rule. (The film is directed by Jesse Dylan, who also directed “Yes We Can.”)

So far the Charter team and our wonderful volunteers have translated the video into Spanish, Portuguese, French and German. You can help expand that list!

If you are interested, go to dotSUB and register. Then go to our video, choose the language you want to translate the video into, and you’re ready to translate. (Write to armstrong [at] ted.com with any technical issues.)

From religious scholar Karen Anderson, whose 2008 TED Prize wish formed the seed of the Charter for Compassion: “The Golden Rule requires you, in a disciplined way, to discover what gives you pain and refuse to do that to others.” “At a time when religions are seen at loggerheads, the Charter is a cooperative exercise.” […]

As she accepts her 2008 TED Prize, author and scholar Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions — Islam, Judaism, Christianity — have been diverted from the moral purpose they share: to foster compassion. But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act […]